INVESTINDUSTRIAL ACQUIRES PARKER FOOD GROUP AS RIVERSIDE COMPANY EXITS AFTER 5 FRUITFUL YEARS
Investment group Investindustrial has acquired ingredients company Parker Food Group from private equity firm The Riverside Company for an undisclosed sum.
US-based Parker Food, founded in 1926, develops and manufactures speciality value-added ingredients for multinational and emerging food and beverage brands. The company is said to be a “go-to” solutions provider for food development and processing, especially in the areas of baking, dairy, beverage, confectionery, ready-to-eat, snacks and foodservice.
Riverside first invested in the business in 2017, with a plan to drive growth through investments in infrastructure, people, processes and systems. Shortly after the acquisition, Riverside invested more than $30 million (€29.5m) in a manufacturing facility in Fort Worth, Texas, increasing capacity almost fourfold. Riverside also oversaw the 2020 acquisition of Creative Food Ingredients which adding scale to the Parker Food business.
According to Investindustrial, a European group with €11 billion in raised fund capital, Parker Food “has best-in-class profitability in the industry” and over the past decade has consistently showed double-digit sales growth led by CEO Greg Hodder. The company’s R&D team collaborates with customers’ product development teams to develop products that address specific customer requirements, which typically involves at least 150 touch points between Parker Food and the customer from new product ideation to commercialisation.
Speciality inclusions: a growth market for Parker Food
The North American speciailty inclusions and toppings market was worth $1.7 billion in 2021 and is expected to continue growing at approximately 10% CAGR until 2026 claimed Investindustrial. The business is being driven by volume growth of end markets; higher penetration of speciality inclusions ingredients compared to traditional ones – an impact of premiumisation trends; and an increased need for taste differentiation.
Parker Food, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, has three factories in the US, located in Mexico, Missouri; Perry, New York; and Fort Worth. The company joins Investindustrial’s broader group of food ingredients companies including CSM Ingredients, Hi-Food and Italcanditi, which jointly have a turnover of close to
€1 billion.
Andrea Bonomi, chairman of Investindustrial’s industrial advisory board, commented: “We are building an ingredient-tech platform with the vision to create unique and innovative solutions for the food industry. Parker Foods will become part of it and contribute to our family of existing ingredients investments.”
The news of this acquisition comes just days after SIAL Paris Newsroom reported that Investindustrial had purchased a significant segment of TreeHouse Foods’ meal preparation business.
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